An Epidemiology of Representations"[P]reservative processes are always partly constructive processes. When they don't replicate, this does not mean that they make an error of copying. Their goal is not to copy. There are transformations in the process of transmission all the time, and also in the process of remembering and retrieving past, stored information, and these transformations are part of the efficient working of these mechanisms."

Native Ingenuity"Inca metallurgy was as refined as European metallurgy, but it had such different goals that until recently scientists had not even recognized it as a technology...Europeans sought to optimize metals' 'hardness, strength, toughness, and sharpness.' The Inca, by contrast, valued 'plasticity, malleability, and toughness.' Europeans used metal for tools; Andean societies primarily used it as a token of wealth, power, and community affiliation."